TravelStream™ news feed for member drmom on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/drmom en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:53:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245544554/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245544554/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245544554/tpod.html Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:53:53 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

Today is our last day in Bonaire.  It is also Paul's birthday.

We had a leisurely morning and then headed off to the northern end of the island. We started out on the western coast, checking out the rough entrances for the dive sites along there.  At one site, Karpata, I angered an iguana by getting too close to it (I hadn’t noticed he was there) and he chased us all back to our truck.  It must have been quite a site to see a moderate-sized iguana running off the three of us! 

From there we went to the Washington Slagbaii National Park.  This is located at the northern end of the island.  We drove through on the park’s dirt road, looking at a bazillion cacti and lizards.  There also are flamingoes!  They nest and feed here on the island, which is apparently one of only two Caribbean nesting sites.  We ate a picnic lunch on one of the beaches in the park.  The surf on the north end of the island was very rough, even got to saw a blowhole.

We were back to the condo by mid afternoon.  Emily fell asleep on the couch and Paul watched the Cubs game.

We had dinner at a nice restaurant in town, Capreccios.  They’re known for their pumpkin ravioli.  Sounds weird, but it was excellent!

Now we’re back in the condo, contemplating packing.  Back home in the morning.

Dutch word of the day: kamhadegis.  Iguana.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245369410/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245369410/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245369410/tpod.html Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:53:28 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

When we were in Cayman we learned that diving can set off Paul's asthma, so we now bring an albuterol inhaler with us.  Unfortunately, Paul lost it yesterday…and needed it today in the rough surf.  Because of this, he ended up sitting out the first dive.

Another morning of boat dives.  Today we went to spots along Klein Bonaire, which is a small island on the western side of Bonaire.  We started off at a site called Nearest Point.  The surf was rough, which made entry a little more challenging than usual.  The reef was nice, but the fish were not as abundant as they have been at some other sites.  (I think I have been spoiled by Tori’s Reef!)  Because Paul couldn’t come along at the last minute (we were in the water when he started having trouble breathing and headed back to the boat) and he had the dive computer and is our navigator, I was trying to navigate, keep track of depth, air, time, and Emily, and still take a few pictures.  We did, amazingly, get back to the boat.  Paul was able to dive the rest of the day. Our second dive off of Klein Bonaire was at Leonora’s Reef.  Our big find here was a green sea turtle.

After lunch we went for a shore dive.  We checked out a number of sites, but the wind had led to more waves, making them rougher entries than we wanted to deal with.  We ended up at a site we were planning on doing tomorrow: Bachelor’s Beach.  This is basically a couple of blocks north of our condo.  You have to go down stairs with all of your gear to get to the beach.  Once there, though, the entry was extremely easy, and the reef was quite nice.  There was a small dive boat there as well, and some of the divers with that group found an octopus.  By the time we got there he was hiding in a small opening in coral.  I could see the edge of him, but could not get a picture.

After we cleaned up from the salt water, we headed out to explore.  The mid-eastern part of the island has mangroves, so we went to check them out.  Along the way we came upon a group of wild donkeys, some goats, and a couple of flamingoes (who wouldn’t let us get anywhere close).

Tomorrow is our last day of diving.  More shore dives are planned.

Dutch word of the day: more of a phrase.-->uitgezonderd bestemmings-verkeer = something to do with truck traffic, but I haven't gotten an exact translation. Still, these Dutch words are a bit crazy to look at!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245462690/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245462690/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245462690/tpod.html Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:52:05 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

Today was our last day of diving since it is highly recommended that you have 24 hours without diving before flying—don't want to decompress on the plane.

We started out at a site near our condo called Windsock.  We had snorkeled this site our first day here and were impressed, so we wanted to dive it.  We weren’t disappointed.  Our big find here was a green sea turtle.  When we were taking our gear apart, Paul’s tank with all of the gear still attached fell off the back of our rental truck.  Didn’t really think much of it at the time.

With the loss of Paul’s albuterol inhaler the other day, we figured we only had one more dive for the day.  We decided to go back to our favorite site, Tori’s Reef, since it has an easy entry and amazing fish.  When we were setting up our gear again, my tank with all of the gear fell off the back of the truck.  After that, it had a big air leak…and when Paul’s gear was all set up we found that he also now had an air leak.  Somehow we both managed to damage our gear (specifically, the regulators) within 30 minutes!  We really wanted to re-do Tori’s Reef, so we rented regulators for the dive.  Again, this dive site is incredible!

We then got all of the dive gear washed, cleaned up ourselves, and rested at the condo.  The rest of the afternoon consisted of trinket shopping and a wild-goosechase attempt at finding a blowhole on the eastern coast of the island.

Tonight we had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Cactus Blue.  Emily and I had very tasty grilled fish sandwiches.  We had milkshakes again (I said that in Dutch, by the way) and sat along the waters’ edge.  While there, a Dutch Navy ship docked, which is quite an involved ordeal.

That’s about it for today.  This is the end of the fish pictures…all told I took over 700 underwater pictures.  You’ve seen most of the decent ones!

Dutch word of the day: verkrijgbaar.  In season.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245285429/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245285429/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245285429/tpod.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:48:16 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

We decided to take it slow today, so that meant sleeping in past nine, a leisurely breakfast, then a little diving.

We started off at Hilma Hooker, a site with a sunken ship in-between the two reefs.  We don't wreck dive, so we basically just went along the upper surface of the ship.  The rest of the time was on the reef, which was very healthy and had a huge variety of fish.  Again, there are so many fish here it is impressive.  The shore entry to the dive site was a bit challenging as there was notable surf and a rocky entry, but we managed to get in and out uninjured.

We then headed off to Tori’s Reef, as site that is sometimes mentioned as the second most diverse site for marine life in the Caribbean.  Boy, that’s not a lie.  I have never seen so many and so many types of fish!  Seriously, we were constantly surrounded.  There also were literally thousands of tiny juvenile fish everywhere.  This is an amazing and healthy reef.  Definitely the best dive so far.

We decided to stop at two dives today to give us a bit of a break.  This afternoon we went into Kralendijk, the main city in Bonaire.  We checked out souvenir shops and wandered around.  We had some pizza at a local place.  I tried tuna pizza…pretty much like a good, tomato-ish tuna melt.  Emily really liked the place because they had a resident cat.  We also stopped for some milkshakes at Watta Burger, which is essentially a Dutch fast food place.  Now we’re back in the condo relaxing.  Tomorrow brings more boat dives.

Dutch word of the day: milkshake.  Really. 

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245195641/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245195641/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245195641/tpod.html Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:17:09 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

I'm sure you’ll all be shocked to hear that today we went scuba diving.  Bam! Out of the blue!

Actually, today was a little different because our first 2 dives of the day were boat dives instead of shore dives.  It was a nice, small group: 6 total divers including the dive master, so no big crowds.  We started off at Kalli’s Reef, which is towards the northern end of the island, still on the western side.  There were fish everywhere!  There was a huge lobster and multiple eels.  We also heard some clicking while we were underwater…turns out that there was a pod of about 15 dolphins going by. We didn’t see them, but the dive master who stayed on the boat did.  From there we went to Petrie’s Pillar.  This was another excellent reef with incredible fish life.  I got some decent pictures today, too.

After the boat dives were over, we ate lunch at Buddy’s Resort, where our boat docked.  We were entertained by a blue-blue lizard who really wanted to come over and visit us.  I much preferred him with a 3 foot distance!

We then headed north of town for a shore dive.  We checked out a site called Andrea II, but decided that we’d have to carry our gear way too far, so we headed out to Andrea I. We were told that this is a pretty easy shore entry because the surf is low.  I’d sure hate to try it with significant waves because it was challenging enough for us.  The dive was decent, but this reef wasn’t nearly as nice as the others we’ve seen here so far.

After diving, we ran a couple of errands.  This included buying a new mask for Paul as his 18 year-old mask has been leaking  pretty regularly.  At the shop, Emily found a cat…she’s still disappointed that our condo doesn’t have cats like the one in Cayman did, so this made her day.

Now we’re all cleaned up, fed, and relaxing.

Can’t forget the Dutch word of the day: drempels.  Apparently this is speedbump.  They have these wide, brick speedbumps through town.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245114887/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245114887/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1245114887/tpod.html Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:30:56 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

Today we rented an underwater camera (which we'll have for the next few days), so I’ve been playing with pictures.  In the past, my underwater picture yield has been 1-2 for every 100 taken…today was much better!  I’ll spare you most of the pictures. 

We started our day where we tried to start yesterday: Alice in Wonderland dive site.  This is part of the double reef system at this end of the island.  We managed to see all of the usual types of fish along with a spotted moray eel, a huge porcupine fish, and Emily found a fish that I’ve not been able to definitively identify yet.  From there we went to Corporal Meiss.  Same reef system…another nice dive.  We then decided to return to Angel City.  The fish life there was impressive and we wanted to take advantage of the camera. There were fish everywhere…we weren’t disappointed. 

After the three dives, we were wiped out. I’m not sure what changed overnight, but I was much more buoyant today than the last 2 days.  I played around with adding weights and ended up ditching the shorty wet suit and using skins (thin, spandex-like, full-length suit).  Eventually, I stayed underwater properly.  On a couple of them Paul and I went through our air tanks rather quickly either because we were fighting a current or because I was floating.  We definitely got a workout!

After diving, we were off running errands: change of batteries for the rented underwater camera, fill up the rental truck with gas, and a return trip to the grocery store. Nothing too exciting.  We dropped off the food at the condo and went out exploring the southern end of the island.

We are staying on the western side of Bonaire near the south end of the island in a town called Bel Nem.  South of us you can find the salt pier, where they extract salt from the ocean and have large tracts of "crystallizers" where the water is evaporated off.  They collect it into big mounds and ship it off. Salt is a major export of Bonaire and has been for centuries.  Near the salt pier we found a few flamingoes.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get very close as they were on the private property of the salt company.

We continued on south to the slave huts.  These were built in the 1850s to house slaves that worked in salt-collecting.  From there we drove around the tip of the island and started back north on the eastern side of the island.  The surf was much rougher here…not inviting for shore dives.  We passed by the Willemstoren lighthouse.  Other than that, the rest of the drive was pretty barren.  Bonaire is humid, but otherwise is a very dry environment, so there’s not an overabundance of plants.

Tonight, being tired, we actually turned on the TV. It seems wrong to be able to watch WGN while in Bonaire!

Dutch word of the day: kruidenierswinkel = grocery store.
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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

Ten and a half hours of sleep is sure nice! 

We started out our morning with plans to dive at a deep reef called Alice in Wonderland, but when we got there we found way too many cars for our liking (that's what we get for sleeping in, right?).  We headed off to the next site down, Angel City.  This is a double reef area, meaning that there is a shallower reef, then sand, then a deeper reef past it. The far side of the reef drops off into the darkness, who knows how deep.  There were a ton of fish out there and this coral was all healthy.  It was one of the most impressive collection of fish I’ve seen…the usual players: parrotfish, butterfly fish, schools of tang, pufferfish, but lots of them.  Very nice.

Our next dive was at a site called The Lake.  This also is a double reef site (just down a ways from Angel City).  We decided to descend early and follow the shoreline down to the reef.  On our way, Emily hit the jackpot!  She found a tiny seahorse…the guy was maybe 1/2 inch long.  Unfortunately, he swam off under a rock before Paul could see him.  I also didn’t have an underwater camera today, so we really hope to find more.  This dive had a number of trumpetfish, including one with a bluish head.  We saw a very large porcupine fish, spotted moray, and Emily’s good eyes found a flounder.

After that dive, we went to the condo for lunch and decided to dive off the condo’s beach, which isn’t an official dive site.  The reef here was magnificent like the other two dives of the day.  The most exciting find for me was a Hawksbill turtle, about 14 inches long, feeding on algae.  I got to watch him for quite a while.  Emily, with the good eyes, found what looked exactly like a snake.  Further investigation has led me to the conclusion that it was actually a spotted snake eel.  The consensus is that there are no sea snakes in the Caribbean anywhere.  I couldn’t see the gills or any dorsal fin on this guy, but he otherwise looked like the eel pictures I found.

All three of our dives were marred by some difficulty.  On the first one, Paul’s mask was leaking and he was also having trouble clearing his ears.  We also figured out that Emily’s rental depth gauge wasn’t working, so we went back to the dive shop to exchange it.  The second dive, Emily’s BC (buoyancy control device…the vest divers wear) wouldn’t inflate from her air tank.  We had to swim back to shore and fix it.  The third dive, I was having a horrible time equalizing the pressure in one of my sinuses.  I eventually made it down to the depth that Paul and Emily were at, but most of the time I was 10 or so feet above them.  In addition, Paul’s snorkel came off of his mask strap and he became too buoyant when his air tank was half full and kept floating up.  Despite all of these issues, we had a good time on each dive, but decided that three was enough for today.

We went into town for dinner and walked around some.  Most everything was closed since it is Sunday, but we got to check things out.  We ate at a little barbecue place (not like Oklahoma BBQ) and had some great grilled chicken.  Then we drove around the island past our condo to explore.  We found a large flock of flamingos, probably a couple hundred, but it was too dark for a picture.  We’ll have to catch them another time.

We can’t forget the Dutch word of the day.  Today is actually 2 words: overstekende ezels, which apparently means donkey crossing.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1244433600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1244433600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/6/1244433600/tpod.html Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:57:50 -0400 Bonaire 2009

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Bel Nem, Netherlands Antilles

After a long red-eye flight, we arrived in Bonaire at 5am local time this morning.  We had hoped to hit the ground running, but we were up all night thanks to a loud woman right behind us on the flight, so we were exhausted.  Our condo wasn't ready (we knew that would be the case) so we were given another condo to use for the morning.  We slept for a few hours, got our rental car, moved to our real condo, and went grocery shopping. 

At the rental car place, Emily and I saw more iguanas than we managed to count, along with a very colorful local lizard that the rental car agent said is called a blue-blue.  He said that the tail has a toxin and if your cat eats it it’ll sleep for hours.  The grocery store we went to is supposed to be the premier one on the island.  We had to hurry because they were only open until 1pm and they’re closed tomorrow (Sunday).  We got there in time, but you’d be surprised by the premier grocery store…not much there by American standards!  Not exactly Tulsa prices, either.

After our errands were done, it was time to get in the ocean.  Much of the reef off of Bonaire is a protected national park, so we had to go through an orientation this afternoon followed by a dive off the beach from the dive shop.  The shallow reef there was damaged significantly by a tropical storm last October, so they like to have new arrivals dive there first: figure out their buoyancy in an area where they can’t really do much damage.  Despite the damage to the coral, there were still a lot of fish.  Mostly standard fare: tons of parrotfish and tang.  We did see a couple of spotted trunkfish, which I particularly like.  I was having some problems going below 40 feet…one of my sinuses wouldn’t clear.  Because of that, combined with the fact that we were all still very tired, we decided we were done diving for the day.

That didn’t mean that we were done with the water, though.  We headed out for a pre-dinner snorkel at one of the officially marked dive sites.  Bonaire is known for shore diving, meaning that you don’t have to go out on a boat to get to most of the sites.  As you drive along the main coastal road you see rocks that have been painted yellow and labeled.—these are the shore dive sites.  Today we went to Wind Sock.  This area also showed damage from the tropical storm, but the reef was teeming with fish!  We saw one of the largest rainbow parrot fish I have ever seen.  Ginormous!! We also saw the two largest sea cucumbers I’ve seen.  They were at least 2 feet long!  Additionally, we saw orangespotted and whitespotted filefish, west Indian sea egg (a sea urchin with white spines), a trumpetfish, and a school of more than 20 tang.  All of this was within 10-12 feet of the surface and right along the shoreline…amazing!

We have now had dinner, prepared by Dutch instructions (FYI: the Dutch word for instructions is gebruiksaanwijzing.  This is our first official Stanton trip Dutch word of the day.), and are relaxing on our beachside deck.  I’m sure we’ll all be sound asleep soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/5/1214597100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/5/1214597100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/drmom/5/1214597100/tpod.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:13:02 -0400 California 2008

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Mission Viejo, California, United States

We took a break today and spent the day by my aunt and uncle's pool. My cousin, Kristen, brought her kiddos over and the kids swam for hours while the adults chatted. Lucy the standard poodle stayed nearby. After days of lots of driving and activities, this was a well-earned day off of our vacation.
We had dinner with my godmother, Cathy, and her husband, David, in Huntington Beach. They have two cats, so Emily was well-entertained. Tomorrow Paul is going golfing with David.
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Los Angeles, California, United States

This morning we headed out of Glendale towards Mission Viejo. We decided to take a detour to LA so that we could go to the La Brea tar pits. The La Brea tar pits are a collection of asphalt pits, with methane and tar bubbling through them, in which many ancient animals got entrapped. There are excavations (ongoing for over a century) finding bones and other fossils in the fragrant muck. We were able to see one of the excavation sites, along with the museum and the large asphalt pond out front. Emily decided that Dire Wolves, the most frequently found bones in the pits, must not have been very bright.

From the tar pits, we drove through Beverly Hills. We went in search of a Johnny Rockets for lunch and ended up at the old Farmer's Market. They've really fixed up the Farmer's Market, while also keeping a true farmer's market area (it has been there since 1934). We had a nice lunch and walked around the area before finally making our way to Mission Viejo to stay with my aunt and uncle.

We had a nice evening with my aunt and uncle. They're putting Paul, Emily, and me up in their motor home. This isn't some old, dinky motor home-this is a huge, beautiful one with all of the amenities. We're living large.
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